DOMBEY AND SON

       by Charles Dickens

       Contents

       CHAPTER 1. Dombey and Son

       CHAPTER 2. In which Timely Provision is made for an Emergency that will sometimes arise in the best-regulated Families

       CHAPTER 3. In which Mr Dombey, as a Man and a Father, is seen at the Head of the Home-Department CHAPTER 4. In which some more First Appearances are made on the Stage of these Adventures CHAPTER 5. Paul's Progress and Christening

       CHAPTER 6. Paul's Second Deprivation

       CHAPTER 7. A Bird's-eye Glimpse of Miss Tox's Dwelling-place: also of the State of Miss Tox's Affections

       CHAPTER 8. Paul's Further Progress, Growth and Character CHAPTER 9. In which the Wooden Midshipman gets into Trouble CHAPTER 10. Containing the Sequel of the Midshipman's Disaster CHAPTER 11. Paul's Introduction to a New Scene

       CHAPTER 12. Paul's Education

       CHAPTER 13. Shipping Intelligence and Office Business

       CHAPTER 14. Paul grows more and more Old-fashioned, and goes Home for the Holidays CHAPTER 15. Amazing Artfulness of Captain Cuttle, and a new Pursuit for Walter Gay CHAPTER 16. What the Waves were always saying

       CHAPTER 17. Captain Cuttle does a little Business for the Young People

       CHAPTER 18. Father and Daughter

       CHAPTER 19. Walter goes away

       CHAPTER 20. Mr Dombey goes upon a Journey

       CHAPTER 21. New Faces

       CHAPTER 22. A Trifle of Management by Mr Carker the Manager

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       CHAPTER 23. Florence solitary, and the Midshipman mysterious

       CHAPTER 24. The Study of a Loving Heart CHAPTER 25. Strange News of Uncle Sol CHAPTER 26. Shadows of the Past and Future CHAPTER 27. Deeper Shadows

       CHAPTER 28. Alterations

       CHAPTER 29. The Opening of the Eyes of Mrs Chick CHAPTER 30. The interval before the Marriage CHAPTER 31. The Wedding

       CHAPTER 32. The Wooden Midshipman goes to Pieces

       CHAPTER 33. Contrasts

       CHAPTER 34. Another Mother and Daughter

       CHAPTER 35. The Happy Pair CHAPTER 36. Housewarming CHAPTER 37. More Warnings than One

       CHAPTER 38. Miss Tox improves an Old Acquaintance

       CHAPTER 39. Further Adventures of Captain Edward Cuttle, Mariner

       CHAPTER 40. Domestic Relations CHAPTER 41. New Voices in the Waves CHAPTER 42. Confidential and Accidental CHAPTER 43. The Watches of the Night CHAPTER 44. A Separation

       CHAPTER 45. The Trusty Agent CHAPTER 46. Recognizant and Reflective CHAPTER 47. The Thunderbolt CHAPTER 48. The Flight of Florence

       CHAPTER 49. The Midshipman makes a Discovery

       CHAPTER 50. Mr Toots's Complaint

       CHAPTER 51. Mr Dombey and the World

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       CHAPTER 52. Secret Intelligence CHAPTER 53. More Intelligence CHAPTER 54. The Fugitives

       CHAPTER 55. Rob the Grinder loses his Place

       CHAPTER 56. Several People delighted, and the Game Chicken disgusted

       CHAPTER 57. Another Wedding CHAPTER 58. After a Lapse CHAPTER 59. Retribution CHAPTER 60. Chiefly Matrimonial CHAPTER 61. Relenting CHAPTER 62. Final

       PREFACE OF 1848

       PREFACE OF 1867

       CHAPTER 1. Dombey and Son

       Dombey sat in the corner of the darkened room in the great arm-chair by the bedside, and Son lay tucked up warm in a little basket bedstead, carefully disposed on a low settee immediately in front of the fire and close to it, as if his constitution were analogous to that of a muffin, and it was essential to toast him brown while he was very new.

       Dombey was about eight-and-forty years of age. Son about eight-and-forty minutes. Dombey was rather bald, rather red, and though a handsome well-made man, too stern and pompous in appearance, to be prepossessing. Son was very bald, and very red, and though (of course) an undeniably fine infant, somewhat crushed and spotty in his general effect, as yet. On the brow of Dombey, Time

       and his brother Care had set some marks, as on a tree that was to come down in good time--remorseless twins they are for striding through their human forests, notching as they go--while the countenance of Son was crossed with a thousand little creases, which the same deceitful Time would take delight in smoothing out and wearing away with the flat part of his scythe, as a preparation of the surface for his deeper operations.

       Dombey, exulting in the long-looked-for event, jingled and jingled the heavy gold watch-chain that depended from below his trim blue coat, whereof the buttons sparkled phosphorescently in the feeble rays of the distant fire. Son, with his little fists curled up and clenched, seemed, in his feeble way, to be squaring at existence for having come upon him so unexpectedly.

       'The House will once again, Mrs Dombey,' said Mr Dombey, 'be not only in name but in fact Dombey and Son;' and he added, in a tone of luxurious satisfaction, with his eyes half-closed as if he were reading the name in a device of flowers, and inhaling their fragrance at the same time; 'Dom-bey and Son!'

       The words had such a softening influence, that he appended a term of endearment to Mrs Dombey's name (though not without

       some hesitation, as being a man but little used to that form of address): and said, 'Mrs Dombey, my--my dear.'

       A transient flush of faint surprise overspread the sick lady's face as she raised her eyes towards him.

       'He will be christened Paul, my--Mrs Dombey--of course.'

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       She feebly echoed, 'Of course,' or rather expressed it by the motion of her lips, and closed her eyes again.

       'His father's name, Mrs Dombey, and his grandfather's! I wish his grandfather were alive this day! There is some inconvenience in the necessity of writing Junior,' said Mr Dombey, making a fictitious autograph on his knee; 'but it is merely of a private and personal complexion. It doesn't enter into the correspondence of the House. Its signature remains the same.' And again he said 'Dombey and Son, in exactly the same tone as before.

       Those three words conveyed the one idea of Mr Dombey's life. The earth was made for Dombey and Son to trade in, and the

       sun and moon were made to give them light. Rivers and seas were formed to float their ships; rainbows gave them promise of fair weather; winds blew for or against their enterprises; stars and planets circled in their orbits, to preserve inviolate a system of which they were the centre. Common abbreviations took new meanings in his eyes, and had sole reference to them. A. D. had no concern with Anno Domini, but stood for anno Dombei--and Son.

       He had risen, as his father had before him, in the course of life and death, from Son to Dombey, and for nearly twenty years had been the sole representative of the Firm. Of those years he had been married, ten--married, as some said, to a lady with no heart to give him; whose happiness was in the past, and who was content to bind her broken spirit to the dutiful and meek endurance of the present. Such idle talk was little likely to reach the ears of Mr Dombey, whom it nearly concerned; and probably no one in the world would have received it with such utter incredulity as he, if it had reached him. Dombey and Son had often dealt in hides, but never in hearts. They left that fancy ware to boys and girls, and boarding-schools and books. Mr Dombey would have reasoned: That a matrimonial alliance with himself must, in the nature of things, be gratifying and honourable to any woman of common sense. That the hope of giving birth to a new partner in such a House, could not fail to awaken a glorious and stirring ambition in the breast of the least ambitious of her sex. That Mrs Dombey had entered on that social contract of matrimony: almost necessarily part of a genteel and wealthy station, even without reference to the perpetuation of family Firms: with her eyes fully open to these advantages. That Mrs Dombey had had daily practical knowledge